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Review
. 2019 Mar;20(2):380-385.
doi: 10.5811/westjem.2019.1.39260. Epub 2019 Feb 19.

Opportunities for Research in Mental Health Emergencies: Executive Summary and Methodology

Michael P Wilson  1 , Christina Shenvi  2 , Loren Rives  3 , Kimberly Nordstrom  4 , Sandra Schneider  3   5   6 , Michael Gerardi  7
Affiliations
Review

Opportunities for Research in Mental Health Emergencies: Executive Summary and Methodology

Michael P Wilson et al. West J Emerg Med. 2019 Mar.

Abstract

Introduction: Despite the ever-increasing numbers of mental health patients presenting to United States emergency departments, there are large gaps in knowledge about acute care of the behavioral health patient. To address this important problem, the Coalition on Psychiatric Emergencies convened a research consensus conference in December 2016 consisting of clinical researchers, clinicians from emergency medicine, psychiatry and psychology, and representatives from governmental agencies and patient advocacy groups.

Methods: Participants used a standardized methodology to select and rank research questions in the order of importance to both researchers and patients.

Results: Three working groups (geriatrics, substance use disorders, and psychosis) reached consensus on 26 questions within their respective domains. These questions are summarized in this document.

Conclusion: The research consensus conference is the first of its kind to include non-clinicians in helping identify knowledge gaps in behavioral emergencies. It is hoped that these questions will prove useful to prioritize future research within the specialty.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: By the WestJEM article submission agreement, all authors are required to disclose all affiliations, funding sources and financial or management relationships that could be perceived as potential sources of bias. The Coalition is funded in part by an unrestricted grant from Alexza. No representatives from the pharmaceutical company were allowed input or conduct of the research consensus conference.

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